+10 seconds

A trip to Leamington and our first outing with Fischer time control in the league. 30 moves in 70 minutes, then an additional 10 minutes with 10 second increments from move 1.

1. Andrew Baruch (w) (193) – Morgan Blake (175)

2. Andrew Paterson (b) (186) – Andy Collins (164)

3. Mark Page (w) (190) – Tom Darling (154)

4. Stuart Blaiklock (b) (115) – Ben Egid (153)

Stuart’s game on 4 was the first to finish. Ben opened with c4 and played a Botvinik system (pawns on c4, e4, kingside fianchetto, Nge2…) Stuart responded passively and soon his opponent had more space and the more active pieces. Stuart struck back in the centre but his inactive pieces were struggling to make an impact I didn’t see how the game finished, but white wrapped up the point. 1-0 to Leamington.

Andrew on 1 opened with a kingside fianchetto and c4 and obtained a fantastic position out of the opening. A knight outposted on e5, all his pieces coordinated and active, I didn’t think Morgan would survive. I was wrong as Morgan played gallantly to reach an endgame that was close to level, rook and 5 vs rook and 5, Andrew having the more active rook. A draw was the final outcome with Andrew having the better chances along the way. 1.5 – 0.5 to Leamington.

Mark’s game was by far the most entertaining with Tom playing the elephant gambit. 1.e4 e5 2.Nf3 d5! Mark more than took up the challenge by playing 3…d4! After the dust had settled, material was even but Tom had an overextended pawn on e4. If Tom was allowed to consolidate he might have been able to prove this pawn was strong and an asset, alas Mark did not accede and surrounded the frightened critter. Tom had to make concessions to defend the pawn and Mark infiltrated with a rook to the seventh. A ton of pressure later and Mark had obtained a winning endgame, Bishop vs knight (Mark had the Bishop) and an extra pawn. The Bishop dominated the knight and Mark converted easily. 1.5 all.

On 2 I played a ropey Kalashnikov Sicilian, Andy didn’t play a critical line and we got an equal position. 300 moves of grind later and we reached a rook endgame in which I was a pawn up. After a mass liquidation of pawns somehow Andy skilfully manipulated the position into a theoretically drawn A and H pawn rook endgame. Luckily for me the position proved difficult to defend and I managed to score the full point.

2.5 – 1.5 win, Olton on Monday, Olton need win on all boards to take second place from us.

2016 AGM

This year's club AGM will take place at the Abbey Club on Monday May 16th, with a 7.45pm start. Our one day per year Chairman, Bernard Rogers, will be officiating - doubtless in his normal no-nonsense manner! The unofficial Club Snooker championship will probably then take place as soon as the formal business has been concluded.

A full Agenda, Accounts and Minutes of the 2015 AGM will be circulated to all paid up members prior to the meeting.

Leamington League Blitz Tournament - Wednesday April 27th

The 2016 LDCL Blitz tournament - or the Phil Holt Benefit as it should be known in honour of the perennial winner - takes place at Solihull (Blossomfield Club, The Wardens, Widney Lane, Solihull, B91 3JY) on Wednesday 27th April, starting at 7:30pm. Make sure you are there before then, to allow time for the necessary admin processes. There will be 9 rounds at 5 minutes per game, paired on the Swiss system.

Entry is £1 per person, with all monies collected returned in prizes. Prizes will be awarded in the Open and Minor sections. Grading limit for the minor will depend on entries. If there are enough entrants there will be 3 sections - Open, Under 140, and Under 100, as last year.

Hopefully Kenilworth can muster a rather larger turn out than we have managed in recent years?

Just a word of warning - the car park tends to get full quite early, so later arrivals may have to park away from the venue, which is not entirely straightforward

Mea Culpa!

Last Saturday was the Grand National. In the 1956 running of the great race, Devon Loch famously threw the race away by inexplicably "jumping" a non-existent fence and slithering to the ground, just 50 yards from the finish. I did something very similar this week and threw away the Coventry League KO Cup Final in the process. Through me contriving to blunder a rook in a completely winning position (+3.37 according to Fritz) against someone graded 122, we went down 2.5- 3.75 on handicap against Division 3 team Chelmsley Wood.

It hardly seems appropriate to discuss the rest of the match, but the bare facts are:-

Ben won very quickly with Black on Bd 3 after a Bxf2 and Ne4+ cheapo had netted him a pawn and a better position - though his opponent's subsequent resignation was probably a touch premature.

Dave also won on  Board 4, though it took a long time to turn his space advantage and extra activity into a full point.

Although Mike's game on Board 2 was happening right next to mine, the only thing I can report is that his opponent's phone went off 3 times. He/We could have - in fact, according to the rules, should have claimed the game - but being sporting chaps and in the absence of any Coventry League representative as arbiter, we didn't. The game ended as a draw once I had lost, although even that seemed to be a source of contention.

I wonder what odds Ladbrokes would have been offering that we could only score 0.5 on the top two boards given our enormous grading advantage? Whatever our own failings, our opponents played way above their nominal strength, so congratulations are certainly due to them on that score.

So, beaten Cup finalists in our debut Coventry League season, but that hardly feels like something to be particularly proud of. I should probably throw myself on my sword in penance, but luckily I haven't got one. So all I can do is offer my apologies to my team mates, and especially those who scored a perfect 100% in the Cup competition this season - namely, Carl (one game, one win); Roy (two games, two wins - yes, really!); Ben (three games three wins) and Dave (four games, four wins).

We are the National Champions! (Well Almost)

While I was away sunning myself in Eastbourne for the weekend, we only went and won a National Trophy. Of sorts. I should go away more often. (Especially after last night, for news of which see the next post.) Our intrepid Captain and Roving Reporter Ben Graff now takes up the story. And one of these days, quite soon even, the Webmaster may enable him to post his own reports. Take it away, Ben .....

A somewhat bemused Joshua Pink and John Harris being presented with Kenilworth’s latest piece of silverware by Alex Holowczak. The National Club, Intermediate Plate, no less! Roy and I had already gone home, not seeing the prospect of any sort of prize as being likely. It just goes to show.

Day 1

On day 1 the team consisted of Joshua, me, Mike and John. After the usual team hugs, singing of the club song and saluting of the Kenilworth flag, we were in high spirits. (OK, strictly speaking we didn’t do any of these things. But after some cups of tea and a catch up, we took to our Boards for the first round in high spirits.) This was the point at which things started to go wrong.

We were involved in triangular matches on both the Saturday and the Sunday. This meant that by the end of each day, we had played two teams in full (Newport and Sutton Coldfield on the Saturday, Braille 1 and Warley Quinborne on the Sunday.) However, it was only at the end of the second and fourth rounds that the full scores against each opponent were known. Sounds complicated? Add in the fact that the Boards were wrongly set up so that we almost started round 1 with four blacks and in the wrong part of the playing hall and I guess you could say that it was! Anyways, that’s our excuse for a seriously below par first day.

An hour into round one, slight alarm bells began to ring for me. Both Mike and I were very passive with Black and appeared to have limited winning chances. (So it proved. Mike was the first to finish, expertly defending accurately in an opposite Bishop ending. I finished next when we got down to Queen and six v Queen and six, in a completely static position. One of the most boring draws I’ve had all season.) In contrast it is fair to say Joshua and John’s games were a lot more “dynamic,” but that was probably the best that could be said for them. Chris Lewis got his Queen in behind Joshua’s pawns, causing all sorts of problems. He ultimately broke through in the ending to win. John also went down after a really tough fight, so not a great start.

Round 2 saw me up against Nathanael Paul. Triangulation meant that despite being our Board 2 I had to play Newport’s Board 1. Given he was 177 I steadied myself for a long game and fuelled up on Pizza at lunchtime. A series of events unfolded that should give hope to all of us when we sit down opposite a higher rated player. With my Queen on e2 and Nathanial’s Bishop on f5, I attacked it by placing a knight on g3. Nathanial’s enterprising attempt to defend it with e6 was somewhat thwarted as after I took the Bishop with said knight his e6 pawn could not take back as it was pinned to the King. The game lasted six moves and ten minutes… I doubt there have been many easier ways to get a 227 ECF for a game! However, after that it was all downhill. Joshua incredibly was up the exchange and cruising to victory when things went terribly wrong. He’d declined several draw offers and saw the chance to grab a second exchange. However, this was a disaster as it then transpired he couldn’t stop his opponent’s pawns from rolling down the board. Ouch. John was also winning before he lost and Mike went down too, so it was a somewhat dispirited team that ended day 1…

Kenilworth		143		Newport		148
721	w	Pink, Joshua		178	0 - 1	Lewis, Christopher D		159
722	w	Graff, Ben		145	1 - 0	Paul, Nathanael		177
723	b	Johnson, Mike		126	½ - ½	Paul, Christopher		120
724	b	Harris, John		125	0 - 1	Ansari, Athar		139
					1½ - 2½

Sutton Coldfield 2		131		Kenilworth		143
711	W	Brown, Noel A		127	1 - 0	Pink, Joshua		178
712	W	Lawrence, Roy		137	½ - ½	Graff, Ben		145
713	B	Marks, Robert		136	1 - 0	Johnson, Mike		126
714	B	Brown, Noel A		127	1 - 0	Harris, John		125
					3½ - ½

Day 2

We told ourselves that tomorrow was another day and so it proved. Roy came into the team for Mike (as planned) and we got down to business. As the expletive free minutes ticked by, it was becoming clear that Roy was on good form. He finished round three first with a good draw, bringing us some much needed stability. How many times have we said that this season? [Ed – not many.] John also very comfortably held the draw. Indeed he stood better at the end, but it seemed like a sensible decision to get us another half point in the bank. Fears were beginning to circulate that Joshua’s non-Chess playing twin brother had turned up in his place for the weekend, when he began the round by “sacrificing,” a pawn for very little. However, by mid-way through the game, he’d been exposed to enough Southern air to begin thinking clearly again and normal business was resumed. He regained the pawn, capitalised on his better pawn structure and eventually won a Rook whilst his opponent was trying to hold his structure together. The win soon followed. I was last to finish. Up against someone who had bored me into a draw a few years ago, we reached the same result via a more interesting game (to a point.) I pressed hard and had the better chances, but he defended very solidly. It’s fair to say that I gave his treatment of opposite coloured Bishop’s more scrutiny than was strictly warranted, you can but try… A better round and we knew we were in the hunt to win both our matches.

The afternoon saw Joshua fully back on form race to a comfortable victory. Roy got caught by a threatened horrendous fork/ mating attack and had to give up a piece to survive. Unfortunately there was no way back and he eventually went down. John again held his own easily for a comfortable draw, which left me against recent Warwickshire Captain Simon Smith (another 170.) It was a case of so close. I was much better out of the opening and won a pawn. I defended well in the middle game and was clearly winning the ending. However, both his technique and the clock began to tell. He created some threats I didn’t expect and basically playing off ten second increments I countered them, but surely not with the best line. To my horror what I thought was going to be an easy win ended up with me with Rook and two vs Rook (but the pawns were fragmented on the h and f files.) Hoh hum... I didn’t find the right approach and after 90+ moves we agreed a draw. Some future learning for me but an interesting game. [Ben is being rather hard on himself here - as long as the defending king is able to block the pawns, this ending is a theoretical draw - Mark]

Braille 1		129					Kenilworth			142
w	Pennington, Graham			138	0 - 1				Pink, Joshua			178
w	Blencowe, Ian P			133	½ - ½				Graff, Ben			145
b	Lovell, Stan E			124	½ - ½				Harris, John			125
b	Gordon, Philip			121	½ - ½				Watson, Roy			121
								1½ - 2½
															Top
		Kenilworth					142			Warley Quinborne					136
w	Pink, Joshua			178	1 - 0				Holowczak, Alex R			145
w	Graff, Ben			145	½ - ½				Smith, Simon C			171
b	Harris, John			125	½ - ½				Pakenham, John H			103
b	Watson, Roy			121	0 - 1				Hussain, Adrian			126
								2 - 2

Final thoughts

A very enjoyable weekend. On another day we might have got closer to the real prizes, but it wasn’t to be on this occasion. The reality was that winning the Plate somewhat masked the fact that we were lower in the overall standings than we would have hoped. That said, it was great to have Kenilworth in the competition and I’m sure we’ll give it another go next season. Next year we definitely will kick off with some team hugs, singing and flag saluting – surely if we’d done that this time things would have been very different! J

A terrific Report from Ben, and many congratulations to him for an excellent individual performance and for getting our team together. Great to see Joshua in the Kenilworth colours again, too. (A suit in his case of course.) You can take the man out of Kenilworth, but you can't take Kenilworth out of the man! Although it seems that we won this trophy despite not winning many games, it does at least mean that we now have a cast iron reason to organise an end of season celebration, irrespective of what happens in our two Cup Finals. Which is just as well, considering what happened in the first of these.

Settled by a default

On Monday we were away at Shirley, who incidentally have the nicest chess sets in the league. We were fighting for second place in the league after Solihull acquired the final point they needed. Banbury A defaulted their match to Solihull, a bit harsh considering they turned out a super strong team against us and turned us over, only to settle the league title by a default.

Andrew Paterson (w) (186) – Matthew Long (171)

Mark Page (b) (190) – Paul Webster (170)

 Mike Donnelly (w) (157) – Keith Ingram (170)

Philip Wood (b) (150) – David Thomas (164)

Mark on 2 played the King’s Indian against Paul’s 1.d4. Paul played well and gained central space whilst remaining solid. Mark broke out on the queenside but sacrificed structurally to do this. Mark then sacrificed his lonely a pawn to try to make progress, but white’s position was solid enough. A draw by repetition was soon reached.

On 3, Mike faced a Stonewall. Mike outposted a horse to e5 and gained a ton of queenside space. Keith defended well though and Mike struggled to break through. A draw was agreed and the match was one all.

Philip was facing Dave Thomas on 4. Dave opened 1.d4 we had a Queen’s Gambit Declined. Dave seems to know what he was doing and obtained a very favourable position, taking advantage of black’s poor light squared bishop sitting at home on c8. Dave started to break through in the centre when Philip unleashed a devastating tactic, a knight fork from nowhere taking advantage of Dave’s overburdened queen. The game looked over but somehow Dave fought like a tiger and when I caught up with the game 20 minutes later, Philip was a pawn down in a difficult rook endgame. Paul was unable to hold and the score was Shirley 2 Kenilworth 1.

I played a boring English and both players tiptoed around strategically for a while. Matthew then pushed in the centre and I felt like I was struggling to retain equality. A slight inaccuracy by Matthew allowed me to take advantage of black’s queen’s knight having little manoeuvrability. Soon black was forced to sac the exchange to mix things up. Another exchange fell in the difficult position so I was 2 exchanges up. Matthew threw the kitchen sink and I had to fight to avoid being checkmated. A mop of the brow later and the match was 2-2.

So, congratulations to Solihull, who have been the best team over season and deserve the title. We will get them next year.

Cup Glory Beckons!

After what seems like eons, we were back in Coventry League KO Cup action last night, with an away semi-final against Division 2 Rugby B. With Carl absent, we found ourselves rather dangerously close to our opponents on average grading, given that we started with a 1.25 pts handicap disadvantage and needed 3 points to win the match. But I needn't have been so worried, as we were largely in control, virtually from the start.

Dave had won ridiculously quickly on a previous cup visit to Rugby in December, and found himself twiddling his thumbs for hours yet again, after winning first one piece and then another in double quick time against Martin Wilson. And with the black pieces to boot. Ben was also very fast out of the traps and won only minutes later after his opponent left a rook hanging on a8. Though the position was already winning for Ben anyway.

So only 1 point more needed to get us over the line - but it was quite some time coming. On Board 1, Rugby's very promising junior Jamie Kearney castled queenside against my offbeat line of the Spanish, and while I immediately opened the b file, he had opportunities to generate counterplay with a kingside pawn storm. However, he chose the wrong plan and his attack ground to a halt while mine rolled on. Just before the first time control I broke through on b7 with my rooks and with my passed a pawn about to win a piece by force the game was over.

Which was just as well, since Mike was having a torrid time on Board 2 against Nigel Stanley. With opposite castled kings, White massed his heavy pieces on the open h file and developed a threatening attack. Mike got a pawn for his troubles, but all the time his position was on a knife edge and eventually he had to give up an exchange for another pawn. But then the White queen zoomed down a diagonal to hit the Black king from another direction, There may have been a defence by a rook sac to close the h file, but missing that fleeting opportunity the White rooks invaded on h8 and h7 and it was mate.

Never mind, we've made it  and next Tuesday we will play yet another Division 3 side, Chelmsley Wood, in the final at Wembley. Sorry, make that Coventry Chess Club. We start with a 2.25 point handicap deficit, so there's minimal margin for error, but we've been rather good at overcoming these difficulties so far (11 wins from 12 games in our three Cup matches), so here's hoping we can do it one more time.

The club now finds itself in two Cup Finals - which happily gives us double the chance of having an excuse for another end of season meal to celebrate!